Friday, 9 June 2006

AIRIMP requires airlines to accept more detailed passenger data

Two years ago airline associations in the USA (ATA) and internationally (IATA) jointly amended the specifications for the 28th edition of the "ATA/IATA Reservations Interline Message Procedures - Passenger" (AIRIMP) protocol to support, for the first time, transmission between airlines and reservation systems of detailed personally identified information (address, contact information, passport or travel document number and other details, etc.) for each passenger, even in a multi-passenger PNR .

A significant further step was taken when the latest 30th edition of the AIRIMP came into effect on 1 June 2006.

Until now, transmission of the additional Advanced Passenger Information (API) data was permitted only by bilateral agreement between airlines or reservation systems. It was a violation of the AIRIMP to send such data to systems that hadn't specifically agreed to accept it. Many airlines weren't (yet) technically able to accept this data because of lack of database structures for the new PNR fields, message/and or PNR length limits, or interline message bandwidth limits.

As of this month, airlines that want to comply with the AIRIMP are required to be able to accept messages with all the new API formats. They aren't required to be able to store, process, or forward the additional data, but they aren't allowed to reject messages that contain it, and their communication systems have to be able to handle the additional traffic.

"Congress shall make no law ... abridging ... the right of the people peaceably to assemble." (U.S. Constitution)

"Everyone has the right to freedom of movement and residence within the borders of each state. Everyone has the right to leave any country, including his own, and to return to his country." (Universal Declaration of Human Rights)

"Liberty of movement is an indispensable condition for the free development of a person." (United Nations Human Rights Committee)